Promote Yourself as a Freelancer or Consultant

One of the five common business models that most successful mom bloggers use to earn their revenue is promoting themselves as a freelancer or consultant. If you are a freelancer or consultant, then using your blog to attract new clients is one of the most powerful ways you can do so.

Your blog should become a part of your sales funnel, which is how you lead people from being interested in hiring you to becoming full-blown clients. You do this by offering free or low-cost resources and gradually encouraging your customers to purchase larger products or services from you.

Your most effective content will be articles that demonstrate you can fix the problems your clients need help with. Consider building a mailing list to develop relationships with people who prefer e-mail over RSS. And make it easy for readers to contact you — feature your contact form or information prominently on your blog template.

Because the goal of your blog is to get new clients, advertising can sometimes detract from this goal. Most professional blogs in this category don’t have enough daily traffic to make advertising worth the time, anyway. There certainly are exceptions to this, especially when you can find advertisers or affiliate programs for products that enhance and don’t compete with your services.

One of the most effective ways to diversify your income on this kind of blog is to create your own training products that make your expertise available at a lower price than in a traditional client relationship. This way you create new revenue while also giving potential clients a way to test the waters with you.

You can also create simple service packages of frequently requested projects like Shannon from EightCrazy Designs. Her Design Services page features bundled packages such as an Etsy store banner, avatar, and custom-order image for a flat fee. The best ways to promote this kind of blog online involve social media interactions and search engine optimization.

To summarize, recommended ways to be successful with a blog that promotes your freelance or consulting services are to:

Generate high-quality content that showcases your expertise.

Know your niche so you don’t need heavy traffic in order to be profitable.

Minimize advertising so you don’t distract readers from hiring you.

Build a sales funnel in which you lead customers into a working relationship with you.

Consider starting an e-mail newsletter.

Diversify the way you earn money by creating your own products to sell.

Set aside time every week to build relationships on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

A good example of this kind of blog is Escape from Cubicle Nation, written by Pam Slim. Pam exemplifies all the things that make this kind of blog successful, and it shows. She has a wide range of products and services to sell, an engaging blog, an award-winning book, and a textbook-perfect sales funnel.

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